James and Agnes Archibald

Agnes, wife of James Archibald, d. 15 April 1903, a. 64; also her husb. James Archibald, d. 13 July 1910, a. 73.

Historical information

Mrs Agnes Archibald died on April 15 at Ngaruawahia at the age of 64 years. The venerable lady was the wife of Mr James Archibald, of New Lynn, and had been in the colony since 1840, when she arrived with her parents from Sydney in the ship Westminster. Her maiden name was Hepburn, and the family of Highland descent. The family settled in Mahurangi, but during the wars Mrs Archibald lived in Auckland, and so escaped the privations which attended the settlers in those troubled times.

Auckland Star 18 April 1903 p. 6

James Archibald (1837-1910) was born in Derry, Ireland, and arrived with his parents David (1816-1860) and Margaret nee Pollock in Sydney in 1839, then in Auckland on the Chelydra in 1841. David Archibald was employed on a farm in New South Wales in 1838; on arriving in Auckland, he set himself up as a sawyer, first in West Queen Street by 1847, then Freeman's Bay by 1850. It is probably there at Freeman's Bay that the Archibald family came into contact with sawyer Alexander Hepburn (1903-1883), his wife Catherine nee McIntyre (1803-1871) and their daughter Agnes (1839-1903). James Archibald married Agnes Hepburn, and they had at least eight children: David (1861-1926), Catherine (1863 -?), James Alexander (1864 -1943), John (1866-1948), Alexander Ernest (1869-1955), Mary Ethel (1871-1934), Annie Agnes (1874-1910), and Frank Herbert (1878-1951).

By 1865, James Archibald and his father-in-law Alexander Hepburn were setting up Hepburn's brickworks on the Whau River, at the end of Hepburn Road. Archibald had his own brickworks, at the end of Archibald Road, by 1871. Archibald and Hepburn worked together on contracts for roading and other work for Waitemata County up until Hepburn's death in 1883.

His son David Archibald began to purchase land on Avondale's Rosebank Peninsula from 1882. In 1883, James Archibald branched out to start up a brickworks on railway land in New Lynn, a venture that lasted until the early 1890s. From that point on, he mainly retired from the trade, leaving it up to his sons David (at Archibald Road), John, Alexander Ernest and Frank Herbert (end of Avondale Road from c.1910) to carry on.

Row D, Plot 5: James and Agnes Archibald